Evaluation of quality management in construction of public buildings under the decentralized system: the case of Busia and Pallisa Districts of Uganda

Abstract

Over the past few years, Local Governments in Uganda have constructed substantial quantities of public buildings in fulfilment of the Government's initiatives to develop its social infrastructure facilities. This study was prompted by the prevalent concerns of the public and local government Development partners about the supposedly substandard quality of the public buildings delivered by the local governments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the construction quality management practices employed, in an attempt to determine conformance to established standards, identify Deficiencies and propose suitable strategies for improvement.

The study was carried out in the Local Governments of Busia and Pallisa. Organizations and institutions representing relevant Government Ministries, donor agencies and beneficiary communities as well as building contractors also formed part of the study. Questionnaire surveys And inspection reports formed the basis of the data for this study. The results of the study present a comparable pattern of quality achievement in the two districts, with79%of the public buildings not conforming to established quality standards. Factors that were found to bring about this scenario mainly arise from deficiencies in the quality systems and Practices used by the local government sand the private contractors, and to a lesser extent by the loopholes in the strategic approaches employed by the Government and funding agencies.

Recommendations for improving and upholding the quality standards were made, including; recognition of the quality problem, provision for quality management costs, methods for establishing and upholding functional quality management systems and procedures, and the advancement of effective quality management techniques by the State and funding agencies.